I’m fairly sure that Quince Blancmange was invented when someone put the names of the most old fashioned fruit and the most vintage of desserts through a random generator to see what came up.  It could have been worse.  We could have been eating Medlar Junkets.   or Whortleberry Possets.  BTW…just in case you are writing an academic history of quince blancmange don’t quote me on that origin story!  For everyone else?  That’s how it happened.  Other people will tell you that blancmange originated in the Middle Ages and used to contain chicken and other meaty treats.  That it moved from savoury to sweet in around 1600 and that the name is a portmanteau of the French words for white (blanc) and to eat (manger).  And I’m not saying that they are wrong.  “Quince” blancmange however?  Random name generator.  For sure.  100%.

Quince are one of the weirdest fruit around!  If you are not familiar with them, they are those bright yellow fruit that look like large misshapen pears that you might see in your greengrocer in autumn.  When you cut them open the flesh is white and so, so sour and a little bit bitter.  But when you cook them that flesh becomes a glorious deep pink to dark red and sweet.

And blancmange? Is pretty much jelly / jello with cream or milk mixed through it.  Who knew!

So, I bought a quince because I didn’t really read the recipe first and made the assumption that quince blancmange would contain quince.  I mean stands to reason right?

Hmmm….wrong.  The quince blancmange recipe uses the quince jelly you buy to eat with cheese.  Now, for some reason we had a shit ton of this in our fridge.  Well, one of them was Fig paste but for the purpose of the blancmange, it was all the same.  I have no idea why we had so much of this.  I suspect they came in hampers or were freebies with something because the only other time I have ever cooked quince was to make my own membrillo which is the proper name of Spanish Quince paste and we have been eating that.  Delicious too I might add!  If you do make it, a little splash of vanilla essence in the quince mix does not go astray.  Trust me on that one.

Quince blancmange is so easy to make.

First, tip your paste into a sauce pan, add water and melt that jelly down.  Taste.  Add sugar if needed, or if already very sweet a dash of lemon juice.  Add a splash of vanilla too.  Then, turn off the heat, allow to cool slightly and stir through the cream.  This looked so pretty as it made a beautiful marbled pattern.  It was very soothing moving the spoon through the swirls of colour…

Then add some gelatine pour into the mould and you are done!

Quince Blancmange

Print Recipe

A fruity dessert that tastes better than it looks!

• Yield: 6 1x
• Category: Dessert

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 200 grams Quince Jelly
• 100 grams water (Plus moe for gelatime)
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 4 Gelatine leaves
• Sugar, to taste
• Lemon juice, to taste
• 250 ml Cream
• Berries to serve (Optionaal)

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Instructions

1. Add the quince jelly to the water in a small saucepan and simmer over medium heat until the jelly melts.
2. Add the vanilla.
3. Taste and add sugar and / or lemon juice to taste.
4. Remove from heat. Stir through the cream.
5. Soften the gelatine leaves in a little cool water, then removeand squeeze out the excess water. Stir the gelatine into the warm cream andquince mixture.
6. Pour into a mould and chill until set.
7. To serve, invert the mould and garnish with the berries.

If I did not now know this was quince flavoured I would not have guessed that was it was.  And I don’t think that was because of the figs because it did not taste overly figgy either.  It tasted generically fruity sweet.  The Quince Blancmange was much nicer to eat than it was to look at.  Because it looked revolting.  Really bad.  It reminded me of being back in school and seeing a picture of some lungs with all the arteries and veins running through it.

Spot the Difference

So, not fail but not a total win.  I probably will not make this exact recipe again but I am definitely going to experiment with blancmange a bit more to try to bring out the actual flavour of the fruit.  I wonder if it would have been different if I had used fresh quince instead of the jelly?

Have a great week friends and stay safe!